March 3, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

The former Soviet republic of Georgia has formally signed an application for membership into the European Union, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said in a statement on the government's website Thursday, as Ukraine said it was seeking membership to the bloc after Russia's invasion.

“It is a historic day for Georgia — we are signing an Application for EU Membership on behalf of the country. Application for EU Membership is yet another milestone on the path of European integration of Georgia — it is a stage, which turns a new page in our history and continues the effort of our ancestors, which is aimed at the accession of Georgia into a common European family,” he said. 

Tblisi had been prepared to apply for full EU membership in 2024, according to the European Parliament.

Tbilisi’s application comes two days after its neighbor and fellow former Soviet republic of Ukraine said it was seeking fast-track membership to the bloc. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked the EU on Monday to "urgently admit Ukraine" to the bloc.

"We are grateful to partners for standing with us. But our goal is to be with all Europeans and, to be equal to them. I am sure we deserve it. I am sure it is possible," Zelensky said.

Some background: According to the EU Delegation to Georgia, an agreement was reached for closer political association and economic integration between Georgia and the bloc in 2016. A free trade area between the two was established in 2017, and Georgian citizens have the right to visa-free travel in the Schengen area.  

Georgia has had a contentious relationship with Russia since it gained independence from the Soviet Union almost 30 years ago, with Russia backing two breakaway self-proclaimed republics in Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. In 2008, it spiraled into full-blown conflict after South Ossetian separatists attacked Georgian peacekeepers. Georgia sent troops into South Ossetia, and Russia responded with a military incursion into Georgia itself.

A senior US defense official said Thursday that the US is sharing intelligence with Ukraine amid concerns raised by lawmakers that some intelligence has been delayed reaching Ukrainians on the ground.

Both GOP Sens. Ben Sasse and Marco Rubio — the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee — have expressed concerns that intelligence is not moving fast enough, with Sasse saying "we have lawyers delaying the process at way, way too many steps and we shouldn’t let technicalities get in the way of helping them fight back.”

The senior defense official told reporters Thursday that it wasn’t accurate that intelligence was “being held up” by government lawyers. “We continue to provide information and intelligence to Ukraine as we assess would be most helpful. That continues,” the official said.

But asked whether any decisions have been made that the US won’t share certain targeting intelligence with Ukraine because it risks making the US a party to the conflict, the official declined to discuss the specifics of what is being shared.

The official noted that the US no longer has boots on the ground in Ukraine or aircraft flying over the country’s air space, saying the US ability to glean intelligence “is not as robust as it once was.”

“The Ukrainians are on the ground, the Ukrainians are in the fight,” the official said. “And in many cases, in many ways they simply have more contextual information than what we can give them.” 

Russian forces have shown a “willingness to hit civilian infrastructure on purpose,” a senior US defense official told reporters on Thursday. Previously, the official said the US was seeing Russians hit civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, but it was unclear if it was purposeful or not.

The official said the US can see Russians hitting civilian infrastructure on purpose in their targeting of structures like “media towers and media facilities.” They are also “hitting residential areas,” and, in places like Kyiv and Kharkiv, “hitting government infrastructure.”

“It’s clear they’re trying to weaken the governing structures that are resident in these population centers,” the official added.

US and other Western officials have told CNN that Russia's strategy in its war on Ukraine is shifting toward a "slow annihilation" of the Ukrainian military, warning that Russia could focus on a bloody and deadly bombardment of cities and civilian targets.

The European Union will grant temporary protection to all refugees fleeing the conflict in Ukraine, according to the bloc's Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson.  

Johansson made the announcement in a tweet Thursday, calling it "a historic decision." 

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin provided further details on how the protection will be offered in a press release: 

EU ministers met on Thursday to activate Directive 2001/55/CE, which provides "temporary protection in the case of a massive influx of displaced persons," according to the press release.  

The French presidency of the Council of the European Union and the European Commission welcomed the decision, saying it "reflected the EU's full engagement in showing solidarity towards Ukraine and assuming its duty towards victims of this unjustifiable war." 

"The European Union will continue to do everything to help Ukraine and the victims of the war," Darmanin stressed.  

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi called the EU’s decision “unprecedented.” 

“It will provide protection to millions on the move. We encourage its swift and broad application,” he said in a tweet.  

There have been more than a million Ukrainian refugee arrivals since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24, according to the latest update from the UN Refugee Agency.  

Russia's assault on Ukraine is just a week old, but its consequences have already been catastrophic.

In the seven days since Russian troops invaded their western neighbor, hundreds of people have been reported dead and one million have fled for their lives. Energy prices are skyrocketing, and food prices could be next.

No one can say for sure what will happen in the coming days and weeks, but years of relative peace and stability in Europe have already been ruptured, and should the fighting stretch on for months, the crisis could have even greater ramifications.

What happens to Kyiv? Russian President Vladimir Putin has been very clear about his basic goals in invading: He wants to disarm Ukraine, sever its ties to the NATO military alliance and end the Ukrainian people's aspirations of joining the West.

He has also said he wants to rid the country of what he calls the "gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis that has settled in Kyiv and taken hostage the entire Ukrainian people," a baseless and highly-charged reference to Ukraine's democratically-elected government and its Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

Russian forces are encircling the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in an apparent push to topple the government, and a 40-mile-long military convoy is edging toward the city, which has been targeted by multiple rocket and missile attacks in recent days.

Zelensky has vowed to keep fighting, but he is under no illusions that Putin's forces "want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state."

Should those forces take the capital, Ukraine does have other politicians who might be eager to fill the ranks of a pro-Russian puppet regime.

One of Putin's top allies in Ukraine is Viktor Medvedchuk, a prominent politician and oligarch. He faces allegations of treason in Ukraine and has been under house arrest, but his exact whereabouts are unclear.

Territorial goals: Russian forces are also waging campaigns far from Kyiv, attempting to take control of key cities in Ukraine's south and southeast, including Kherson.

The mayor of Kherson effectively admitted that Ukrainian forces had ceded control of the city on Wednesday, saying in a statement on his Facebook page that residents would have to accept the direction of "armed people who came to the city's administration" — in other words, Russian forces.

One former NATO commander told CNN: "It is quite clear that Putin is pushing for a land corridor to Crimea." Richard Shirreff, NATO's former deputy supreme allied commander for Europe, said the land corridor was "an obvious objective."

"He's had Crimea in the Russian Federation since 2014, he's only been able to supply it across the Kerch Strait bridge, and so of course he's looking to establish that land corridor down off the Sea of Azov," Shirreff added.

If Russian forces capture the port city of Odessa, it is possible to imagine Moscow creating a land bridge extending all the way across southern Ukraine, potentially even linking Transnistria — a separatist enclave in Moldova, where Russian troops are stationed — to Odessa, Crimea and southern and eastern Ukraine.

Read the full analysis here.

The United Kingdom will not let legal threats hinder its ability to sanction Russian oligarchs, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss warned on Thursday. 

"I'm very clear that legal threats will have no impact on our ability to sanction oligarchs," Truss told reporters in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. 

The UK is "absolutely determined" to sanction Russian oligarchs, the foreign secretary stressed, adding that it is working through "a further list" of oligarchs to sanction. 

Britain is also focused on "cutting off funding for Putin's war machine," particularly the oil and gas sectors, she added. 

To achieve this, the UK will work "in coordination" with its allies "to reduce dependency on Russian gas and oil," she said.  

Russia has moved 90% of its “pre-staged combat power” into Ukraine, according to a senior US defense official, with increasingly heavy bombardment against the cities of Kyiv, Cherniv, Kharkiv and Mariupol.

The official said that while Russian forces are “largely stalled” in northern Ukraine, “that doesn’t mean that they aren’t making any progress.”

Russian forces are now “just outside” Kharkiv, though they remain stalled to the north and northeast of Cherniv, according to the official.

The official also said that the US cannot independently verify that the city of Kherson has fallen under Russian control.

Mariupol is still under Ukrainian control, according to the official, but Russian forces are advancing on the city from the north and from the coastline with the apparent intention of isolating it.

The official said that there have been no “appreciable” moves by Russia, naval or otherwise, on the city of Odessa.

While the US assessed that Russia had moved 90% of its combat power that had been prepositioned outside of Ukraine into the country, Russia is not “running out of juice” and still has “the vast, vast majority of their total combat power” available, the official said.

The US still believes a large Russian military convoy headed toward Kyiv is “stalled,” a senior US defense official told reporters on Thursday.

The official said the US has “no reason to doubt Ukrainian claims” that they have “contributed” to the convoy being stalled by attacking it, the official said. 

“We still assess that the convoy that everybody’s been focused on is stalled. We have no reason to doubt Ukrainian claims that they have, that they have contributed to it being stalled by attacking it,” the official said.

More background: For days, residents of Kyiv had been bracing themselves for a 40-mile-long convoy of Russian tanks, armored vehicles and towed artillery to arrive for an assault on the Ukrainian capital.

On Thursday, the UK's defense ministry said the convoy appears to have stalled some 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) outside Kyiv and has made "little discernible progress" over the past three days, citing intelligence.

Read more about the convoy here.

CNN's Luke McGee contributed reporting to this post.

Russia has launched “more than 480” missiles of “all sizes and stripes” on Ukraine since the beginning of their invasion of Ukraine, a senior US defense official said on Thursday.

The invasion is in its eighth day. 

“More than 230” of that 480 total are “coming from inside Ukraine,” the official said. “They have mobile systems, they’re moving them inside,” the official added. 

The next biggest chunk of missiles are coming from Russia, “about 160 from Russia" and about 70 are coming from Belarus, and a very small number — less than 10 — are coming from the Black Sea, the official added. 

While the airspace over Ukraine “remains contested,” the US assesses that Ukrainian “air and missile defense systems remain intact” and “remain effective,” the official said. 

“They continue to be able to fly their airplanes and to employ air defense assets,” the official added.